Ukrainian and pro-Russian rebel leaders tried on Friday to revive peace talks that stalled after just one round due to stark difference over how to end the eight-month separatist war.

A tense meeting mediated by European and Russian envoys in the Belarussian capital Minsk on Wednesday was due to have been followed by a final one on Friday at which a comprehensive peace accord was signed.

Turkey and Armenia should not expect to resolve a long-running dispute over the mass killing of Armenians in World War I on the 100th anniversary of the tragedy in 2015, a top adviser to the prime minister said.

Armenia and its diaspora want Turkey to recognize the mass killings of Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire from 1915 as genocide, something Turkey has so far vehemently resisted.

The latest push for peace in Ukraine appeared moribund on Thursday after initial talks failed to agree when the warring sides should meet again to try to end an eight-month pro-Russian revolt.

Negotiations mediated by European and Russian envoys in the Belarussian capital Minsk broke up after more than five hours on Wednesday with the separatists reporting progress on only one of four contentious points.

Russia plans to host delegations from the Syrian opposition in late January, possibly followed by a visit by regime representatives that could bring the two sides together for talks, the foreign ministry said Thursday.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Russian deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov discussed during the latter's visit to Lebanon earlier in December the ongoing conflict in Syria and the party's position on the matter, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Thursday.

It said: “Despite the growing alliance between Moscow and Tehran and their backing of Damascus on the economic and military levels, Nasrallah has become a source of honest positions for Russia.”

Russian authorities' attempts to jail Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny and intimidate his supporters could backfire and trigger new political protests amid the most serious financial crisis of Vladimir Putin's rule.

Thousands pledged to take to the streets after Russian prosecutors this month called for the charismatic 38-year-old leader of the country's beleaguered opposition movement to be sentenced to 10 years in prison for alleged fraud.

Ukrainian and rebel envoys resumed intense talks on Wednesday aimed at ending a pro-Russian uprising that has left the ex-Soviet republic in ruins and upset East-West ties.

A successful round of preliminary negotiations in the Belarussian capital Minsk would pave the way for a second meeting on Friday at which a final agreement is signed.

Russian investigators Wednesday said they had new proof from a witness that a Ukrainian pilot fired a missile on the day of the Malaysia Airlines crash which killed 298 people.

The witness, who was not named, worked at an airfield in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk where he claimed to have seen a warplane take off on July 17 with air-to-air missiles and return without them.

A Russian court on Tuesday convicted 57 people, jailing five of them for life, after a decade-long trial over an armed raid on the North Caucasus city of Nalchik.

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday oversaw the successful test-launch of Russia's newest heavy-class Angara rocket, a rare piece of good news in a week dominated by the economic crisis.

The president oversaw by video link the launch of the Angara-A5 from Plesetsk in northern Russia at 0557 GMT, saying the new rocket would allow the country better protection.